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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

The Handbuilt Bedroom, pt. 4: The Bed!

Time to get back to the Handbuilt Bedroom again, don’t you think? With the chest of drawers built so his clothes were off the floor, it was time to tackle the bed so the boy could get off the floor!

I used Ana White’s plans for the Farmhouse Storage Bed, with only a few modifications. For one, I used a plank-style headboard more like the plans available in her book, The Handbuilt Home, rather than the on-line version. It’s measurements are slightly different, but not enough to worry about.

I was able to put the head- and foot-board together in a morning, and then I snapped a cell phone picture and sent it to all my friends!

I recruited my son to help with the “distressing.” When you turn a hammer, screwdriver, and a chain over to your teenager with permission to beat up a newly-built piece of furniture—you enjoy a “cool mom” moment!

I’m not sure why I don’t have a better picture of the drawer boxes. This is the part of the bed that gets expensive, as you have to use 3/4” plywood, and it ain’t cheap! But for my son’s tiny room, I knew we’d need all the storage we could get.

I did choose to use iron-on edge banding for the exposed plywood edges. None of the plans mentioned this, but it’s an inexpensive way to get a much more finished look, I think (bottom left box has the veneer; top right does not).

I used a mix of Minwax Antique Walnut and Weathered Oak stain, same as I’ve used on several tables.

Since I sold my table, the dining room makes a convenient finishing spot!

The day of “bed assembly” was an absolute madhouse around here—it was good to have a project to escape to!

Here you can see one of the drawer boxes on it’s side. Now I’ve added a long rail and two extra legs for mattress support.

There’s a lot of “extra” space in between the drawer boxes, and I couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to access it. I’ve seen some really cool alterations for this bed that either included deeper drawers or a hinged footboard. Deeper drawers weren’t an option, as you never would have been able to pull them out in his room, plus extra plywood gets pricey! And I didn’t feel adequate to the whole “hinged footboard” idea.

So what I chose to do instead was to make the mattress slats “removable.”

See? I made three separate panels of slats, and they rest on a 2x2 rail screwed into the backs of the plywood boxes.

It makes a good space to store things like sleeping bags or off-season clothes.

It was fun to get out the new bedding and make up the bed—word to the wise, though—DO NOT buy IKEA sheets for a non-IKEA bed! They don’t fit, darn it!

If you look at the next picture, you’ll see that there are no drawers yet! That will be our next installment

The bed looks great, Korrie! I love the slat idea to get to the middle storage. I've used the iron-on banding myself for the edges of shelves at our old house. It definitely gives a nice finished look. Too bad about the sheets. I just bought Queen sheets from Ikea for our guest room and they fit fine {not an Ikea bed}. I wouldn't buy them for our pillow top mattress in the master though. I need deep pocket sheets for that one.

On your post about making a Farmhouse Table, you refer to using this same stain mixture. Then you talk about finishing it by "I gave everything three coats of Minwax Hand-rubbed Polyurethane, followed by one coat of Minwax Dark Wax." Did you do the same thing for this bed frame, or simply stain it? Thank you!!

I love this bed and am planning to make my own in a few weeks. Just a quick question, are you using both a mattress and box spring in the final picture? I'm going to have both and want to make sure it will look good and fit well.